Today is Monday, Oct. 8, the 282nd day of 2012. There are 84 days left in the year. This is the Columbus Day observance in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; fires also broke out in Peshtigo, Wis., and in several communities in Michigan.

On this date:

In 1869, the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce (puhrs), died in Concord, N.H.

In 1918, U.S. Army Cpl. Alvin C. York led an attack that killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 others in the Argonne Forest in France.

In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for murder in the death of the son of Charles A. Lindbergh.

In 1944, "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, made its debut on CBS Radio.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

In 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0.

In 1957, the Brooklyn Baseball Club announced it was accepting an offer to move the Dodgers from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1962, Chuck Hiller of the San Francisco Giants became the first National Leaguer to hit a World Series grand slam; the shot came in Game 4 against New York Yankees pitcher Marshall Bridges. (The final score of the game was Giants 7, Yankees 3.)

In 1967, former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee died in London at age 84.

In 1970, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

In 1982, all labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned.

In 1992, former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt died in Unkel, Germany, at age 78.

Ten years ago: A federal judge approved President George W. Bush's request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 to $2 billion a day. Two Kuwaiti gunmen attacked U.S. forces during war games on a Persian Gulf island, killing one Marine and wounding another before they were shot to death. Raymond Davis Jr. and Riccardo Giacconi of the U.S. and Masatoshi Koshiba of Japan won the Nobel Prize in physics.

Five years ago: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his country would halve its remaining troop contingent in Iraq in the spring of 2008. (Britain ended up postponing the withdrawal amid a spike in militia violence.) Michael Devlin was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping one of two boys he'd held captive in his suburban St. Louis apartment. (Devlin pleaded guilty the next day to dozens of other counts, resulting in a total of 74 life sentences.) Americans Mario R. Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Briton Martin J. Evans won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine. Racing great John Henry, the thoroughbred who'd earned more than $6.5 million before retiring as a gelding, was euthanized at the Kentucky Horse Park at age 32.

One year ago: Scott Anderson became the Presbyterian Church's first openly gay ordained minister during a ceremony at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wis. In a rain-interrupted game that ended a few minutes past midnight, the Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in Game 1 of the AL championship series. Al Davis, the Hall of Fame owner of the Oakland Raiders, died at age 82.

Thought for Today: "There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask for no reward except to see." — Vera Brittain, British author (1893-1970).